It’s a done deal. I watched the Board of ED meeting last night and they said that currently 71 percent of parents pick up their kids from kindergarten and drive them to another day half day program. If those parents vote, the full day program will be implemented.
I think, not positive, that they said the cost to taxpayers would be about a little over $100 a year for each household.
I am not for it. They said kids get to more time for unstructured make believe play, imaginative play and socialization in the full day program.
I believe that unstructured make believe time should occur in a quiet setting where the imagination and creativity can best be free to roam without interruption and noise from a roomful of other kids.
As far as socialization is concerned , it happens folks just by living in a family, even if you are an only child. I mean hey, kids don’t live in that Emma Donaghue(spelling) Room (novel)setting. But if that’s what life is like with working mothers, that is the way it is going to be.
I sure wouldn’t want some teacher over my head while playing with my dolls and puppets. I remember being happy to come home after kindergarten and make up my own world. Try telling that to the types who teach young kids nowadays….ha ha ha. Real rigid unimaginative types with stereotypical ideas. By the way, I would love to read my first grade report card to the teachers who want full day kindergarten , after having only a half day of kindergarten before first grade. It is from 1949 and says how independent I was, that I didn’t need any prodding to do an assignment and that I loved to share my experiences with the class. We had sharing time. I had one sibling four years younger. So really no playing with a one year old. No pets at that time. A mother at home, a father working outside the home.
So, as a parent, we should vote to raise everyone’s taxes FOREVER instead of paying for an after school program for one year per child? That doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’ve also heard (but do not know) that the $100 figure is merely the basic implementation costs of the program – for things like re-configuring classrooms. It doesn’t include the ongoing costs like paying the teachers. Does anyone know if that’s true?
Can we just accelerate this process and partner with Valley Hospital to take the kids and put them into state run indoctrination centers from birth.
Leave it at half day and let the kids play with their families or go to any of the dozen different before/after care facilities in the village ON THEIR PARENT’S DIME – not ours.
Sometimes, it’s good to do things that are for the betterment of our children and society. Study after study from the National Education Association to the National Center for Education Statistics run by the U.S. Department of Education has show that children enrolled in full-day programs make greater gains in reading language arts over the course of the kindergarten year compared to those in half-day classes. Additionally, full-day kindergartners make greater gains in mathematics achievement during the year compared to half-day kindergartners.
Currently the US ranks 27th in math and 20th in science compared to other nations. Maybe we should figure out how to support our children’s education, enrichment and growth and figure out how to save the $110.00 in taxes another way from village services.
Maybe we can find $110.00 in tax savings by taking our garbage to the bottom on the streets on trash day? We do it with recycling already . . . just saying.
Maybe parents need to take a more active role in rearing their children. I do not want my tax dollar spent on all day kindergarten. If you have children and want after school enrichment for your kids, you pay for it, or spend more time with them yourselves.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-joyful-illiterate-kindergartners-of-finland/408325/
Yup, they do better because they start academics later at six or later.
I worked part time and my kids got picked up at their elementary school and transported to enrichment 2-3x/week. My greatest joy was picking them up from kindergarten, watching them play with friend in the playground and then going out for lunch or.making.lunch together. As a parent, I would not want ffull day K…they grow up too quickly not to treasure those early years together.
Rather than spend some time with Their kids. Then they come home and get on an iPad for the reaming hours of the day.
How about try some parenting people!!??
@3:14 And i want the graydon contingent to enjoy their personal pool on their dime, not mine.
We all don’t get what we want, do we? At least one can argue that the school system enhances Ridgwood property values. What does Graydon add?
143…enhances property values? Have you seen a sharp decline in home values in Ridgewood since the subprime crisis or the district school enrollment? Graydon is an apples/oranges issue.
Increased taxes hurts our property values, bottom line. They are already too high and it is funny, they say the school population is shrinking in the lower years…why is the school budget not decreasing??
The first year figure was close to 1million, close to 800K each ongoing year. They figured $100/average property value which is around 700K. We know those figures will end up being low…they always are.
I disagree with the premise of the post though, there are still many more families with children already through k (whether they are still in school or out completely) then there are families with kids not yet through k.
School accounts for 70% of all tax spending…how much is graydon per year? 1/2 of 1%?